Can oil pressure be too high?

My oil dipstick indicates the oil level is at the higher limit. The oil level on the dash oil indicator shows all the bars. Thhe oil pressure guage is at 5 when I drive. Do I have a problem or is it not harmful to the engine? Do I need to drain some oil out?

No. Oil pressure isn't related to fill, or overfill, except if too low. RX300 and a T&C. T&C for actual adverse roadbed conditions where RX doesn't hack it? Me to.

At the higher limit is not a problem, and it is not affecting the pressure reading either. Once the car has run under some load for around 15 minutes the oil should be up to operating temperature, and the pressure reading should drop in the lower RPM range or idle. If not, I would suspect the guage sending unit. That is good if your dash display and the stick roughly match, something no owner should assume to be the case.

Wrooooonngg !!! sorry but it happend to me, when the oil indicator was over the limits .. when i drive my car very hard switch it off then after a while on it keeps smoking alot really alot huge cloud of white smoke. it happend to me twice. after i drained some oil out everything was O.K. althought the pressure seemed to be alright but the car keeps smoking alot from time to time .

There is, as you know, a lot of oil in the engine. Therefore being a little low on the stick will not hurt. On the otherhand, I have seen here pretty consistently expressed that overfilling the oil sump does cause problems. I tend to believe the dip stick rather than rely on the dash readout.

But.... Does over-filling result in higher oil pressure? Not likely IMMHO.

Khalid, There is a TSB about this for the 996. During a driver ed event, upon restarting the engine, I had much white smoke. This is the result of the oil level being too high. The higher cornering forces seem to push oil past the valves. It then burns off upon restart. According to the TSB, a slightly longer dip stick replaces the stock one. About a $15 item. This lowers the amount of oil by about a quart. The dash gauge is also reprogrammed so that it does not constantly read too low. After the fix, I have never had white smoke again. I don't think this has anything to do with oil pressure, however. Hope this is helpful. Regards, Mike

..I'd worry about the RMS if i had too much oil in the car. At least i know the RMS in my car spoilt when i changed the oil and it was overfilled with almost 1liter.. Waz 996 c2 99

I you just had your oil changed first thing to check is what viscosity was used. Same thing happended to me after an oil change and I found out the shop changed to some Mobile 1 on the thicker end of the viscosity range resulting in my pressure gauge being pegged on 5 most of the time until I drained some out and went to the next lower viscosity.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by fanC4: <strong>My oil dipstick indicates the oil level is at the higher limit. The oil level on the dash oil indicator shows all the bars. Thhe oil pressure guage is at 5 when I drive. Do I have a problem or is it not harmful to the engine? Do I need to drain some oil out?</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Why would you drain some oil out if the oil level indication is correct, i don't think you have problem.

It's advisable to keep the oil level just one mark under the maximum mark i heard.. I really wonder why they keep low oil levels on tracks and DE's? Anyone? Waz

Perhaps as a practical matter the higher limit of oil might be somewhat below the highest marking on the stick--if you experience excessive oil being burned in the cylinders (that is the symptom of overfill) which sloshes past the valves and potentially carried up by the piston skirts. A lot of that would make me question the service life of the plugs, BTW (anyone know?). There has certainly been some commentary here in the past about some oil burning on track, not the street, particularly on earlier cars. Seems to me I read they changed the sump slightly on the 3.6L cars to deal with this. FWIW I would check on the stick with the oil hot from a fast drive, and if it's over the line at all then maybe get some out. Peace of mind and the sense your car is just right is worth a lot more than a pint or two of oil, your motor is not at risk either way.

Can't overfilling cause pressure buildup and possibly cause some seals, gaskets, etc. to fail?

overfilling is generally bad for the engine as yes it will damage some seals, etc. in the engine in the long run. In some cars however, racing groups recommend you purposely overfill it because when you take hard turns, there's a possiblility the oil collector will not get the oil that is sent back to the enging. One example is E36 M3's they highly recommended this when I was a bimmer owner. On a side note, has anyone put 20-50 oil weight in their car? if not, don't do it, because this was one thing that caused my engine to have high pressure that was very annoying.

Waz, See my post on this thread. Hard driving causes oil to leak past valves, which then burns off on restart, causing big plumes of white smoke. A tsb addressed this to keep oil level low (longer dip stick and reprogramming of the dash gauge). Hope this answers your question. Regards, Mike

Thanks for all the replies. But is it OK for my presseure guage reading 5 almost all the time during driving?

Khalid, You overfilled and that's what caused it to smoke, it didn't smoke because of too much pressure. Ruey, That's why race cars have dry sump oil system, that prevents the engine from drying on hard cornering. It really was a bad bad decision from Porsche to make 996s (except TT, GT2 or GT3) without dry sump. Waz, Mike is correact and also at track (or driving otherwise hard) when the oil get hotter and expands, you might have overflow problems because of that. Iain, 5 is ok if it's not there when your engine is idling (oil warm).

flying, </font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">That's why race cars have dry sump oil system, that prevents the engine from drying on hard cornering. It really was a bad bad decision from Porsche to make 996s (except TT, GT2 or GT3) without dry sump.</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">yes, I am familiar with the dry sump...my cousin who has a ferrari brags about his oil being in a separate container and showed me when we were examining his car when he first got it. I think its cool. I don't think it was a bad decision from porsche however, as for cost cutting measures it did the trick. They build their cars these days from a business perspective to make money and they don't care about the enthusiast concern any longer. I think it just sucks that porsche has to make it this way for those who drive the car hard enough to make a dry sump necessary. One question though, do you think that because we have a flat engine a dry sump would be really necessary, considering the oil would always be at the bottom evenly spread as it already has so much oil?

Porsche 911 2003 brochure page 34...quote: "...the integrated dry sump lubrication system. First developed on our racing cars, a dry sump system keeps the oil reservoir away from the spinning crankshaft...The dry-sump type system ensures a reliable supply of oil to both banks of cylinders.." So are you guys saying there is not a dry sump system in the 996 and Porsche marketing is false?

What's the answer to this?

Ed, I've asked the question about dry sump twice and noone has bothered to answer. I presume that's what you are asking about also.

Yes. I recall also in the 2003 material it mentioning a dry sump. Obviously, it isn't an issue because people here who have tracked the 996 love it, but I am curious none-the-less.